Around the Nation in HS Rugby
Here's a quick look at what has been happening around Boys HS rugby through the USA.
Of course our scores page article said five states were in action when really it was seven ... some stealth launching from Arizona and Georgia threw us off, but here goes regardless:
Florida
We have a closer look at Okapi's big win over Cardinal Gibbons and a standings update here>>. But also checking in with Boca Raton after they won over Key Biscayne.
Head Coach Garth Duff-Gray pointed to his team's lack of warmup scrimmages as one reason for last week's loss to Okapi. Certainly Gibbons could probably point to that, too.
Statement Win by Okapi Heads Up Florida HS Weekend
The Okapi Wanderers made a big statement this weekend in Florida's HS league, shutting out Cardinal Gibbons 36-0.
Gibbons was the runner-up team in the state in 2022. Okapi beat the state winners, Boca Raton, last week 18-3, meaning they played the top two teams from last season and didn't allow a try.
"Great performance from the team today," said Head Coach Juan Orfila. "We improved from last week with Boca, being able to dominate, playing our game plan during 55 minutes."
The club has added Jose Codoni as Rugby Director after coaching top-flight club rugby in Argentina the last seven years. He has worked with all of the coaches across all divisions to establish a basic game plan and approach.
"We have started to see the results," said Orfila.
Dallas Jesuit, Strake, St. Thomas to 2-0 in Texas
Three teams are at 2-0 in the Rugby Texas Single-School league after Friday night saw Dallas Jesuit, Strake Jesuit, and St. Thomas all won.
Dallas Jesuit Over Lake Travis
The Rangers scored early through Mitch Sullivan and built on that with a try from senior Neil Lancaster, both converted by Jordan Mason to make it 14-0.
Lake Travis replied and kept is a one-score game until scrumhalf Jacob Lehman picked up and sniped through for a try that Mason converted for a 21-7 lead.
Once again Lake Travis hung tough and got a try in to make it 21-14.
But that was it for LT as Chase Brown and Austin Smith capped off the game for the Rangers. Final score: 33-14.
Florida Invitational Rugby Showcase Returns to St. Johns County in 2023
Ponte Vedra, Florida – Following last year’s highly-successful Florida Invitational Rugby Showcase, organizers have announced that the event is returning for its third year to St. John’s County, May 19-21, 2023.
“As we’ve said before, this tournament is a commitment to creating opportunities for young people to grow in life and on the rugby field,” Florida Invitational organizer, Mike Wright said. “We’ve had such a great experience with the County and its partners that we are excited to announce that all Florida-based players are exempt from the registration fees contingent they complete three hours of community service in their local areas.
Boys HS Scores Jan 27-29 2023
We've got about 30 boys HS games this weekend with SoCal, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana all in action.
SCIRF
The leading teams are favored in their games, but it will be interesting to see how St. John Bosco, which has needed a little extra time to get moving, take on Cathedral Catholic. Yes, Cathedral is 5-0, having beaten Mission Bay on Wednesday night, but still Bosco might be an upset special here.
US Youth & HS Unveils Coaching App For All Their Members
Washington, D.C (USAY&HS Release)—USA Youth & High School Rugby (USA Y&HSR) and Six Degree announced today that 6 Degree will be the official online coaching app for all registered Youth and High School coaches across the country with a core curriculum provided free of charge.
The partnership will provide online access to a wide range of practice drills and corresponding game videos, a designed curriculum for age-appropriate lesson plans that span an entire season and access to advice from the best coaching minds in the game.
GRR HS Club Rankings Week 1
This is most definitely a preseason ranking.
Very few club teams are in action right now, and even the teams that are playing, such as the Californian teams that were in the Storer Classic, will take some time off.
Texas does get some club games going, and Florida has started, but it will be slow going in January.
So it's important to remember that there will be more action to change these rankings as the winter becomes glorious spring. What this is not is a prediction of how the rankings will end. It is a snapshot of where we think most of these clubs are now, and there is so much more to see.
Three Years Gone from 15s, Los Al Opens Up 2-0
Los Alamitos Boys have hit the ground running in Southern California.
And that's a good thing seeing as the team hasn't played 15-a-side rugby since 2019 thanks to the COVID pandemic.
"It feels great to have a full team again," said club president Steve Faupusa.
They opened their season on January 13 with a dramatic, one-point victory over rivals Long Beach Poly, but really the key games might have been the warmup scrimmages before the Christmas break. In those two scrimmages they tied Orange Lutheran, which is a new team but had a number of experienced players. In the second matchup they took on Torrey Pines, which beat them, but taught the players much.
GRR HS School Team Rankings Week 1
Here is our first week of Boys HS School-Team rankings for 2023.
Obviously a couple of leagues have kicked off already and as we've dealt with in the past, it is very difficult for some of these teams to maintain high rankings through the rest of the spring. Most of that is because once they wrap up their school season in February, other teams will play and move their way past. Only if these teams keep playing and play some opposition outside their league can we get enough data to move them to the upper echelon.
And we're going to see more of that with teams that didn't do that last year. Jesuit New Orleans and LaSalle College Prep are two that have significantly raised the level of their opposition and we celebrate that.
SoCal Latest: Los Al, Thunder, Torrey Pines And More
Carlsbad, Los Alamatos, and Coronado all won in Southern California's Winter Multi-School Varsity season.
It's a nice opening for Los Al as they now sit 2-0 after this weekend's 21-7 win over Rancho Cucamonga. Los Al has a bye next week before taking on John Muir HS, Clairemont HS, and San Juan. The club is also hosting a U16/U14 7s tournament in late February to fill a need for those ages in 7s.
It was a close game for Coronado and a good win for them over Murrieta to start their season 1-0.
NA Lions Teams Named for Heidelberg, United World Games
The North American Lions have named their two rosters for their June 7s tours.
Both the boys and the girls U18 teams will play at the Heidelberg 7s in Heidelberg, Germany as a warmup and then the United World Games in Klagenfurt, Australia.
The Heidelberg Youth 7s will be June 17-18 in the home of Germany's oldest and most famous university (it's over 600 years old).
The United World Games will feature 12 different sports playing June 23-25.
The teams will be on the trip for two weeks and will also visit Venice and Munich.
Kate Janssen will coach the girls team, which features players from nine different teams. The boys team features players from 10 teams and will be coached by Greg Stelluti of Berks County Rugby and Chris Ryan of Conestoga Rugby.
HS Weekend Welcomes Texas, Florida
Slowly the season are getting started.
This week Texas and Florida kick off. Texas has a new single-school team conference in action, which is mostly, but not all, Catholic schools. We are seeing a small wave of new school teams around the country. SoCal has them, Texas is adding a couple, and North Carolina, too.
Over 80 at Young Glory HP Clinic
More than 80 young rugby players braved the cold weather for the latest High-Performance Clinic with Old Glory Academy Director Ben Cima.
This group included high school and middle school boys and girls. Instruction was blended with games to reinforce the skills taught at the clinic.
This is part of Old Glory's ongoing outreach to young rugby players in the region and this latest event brought in 82 young athletes to see what it was all about.
HS Leaders Show Well in Storer Classic
High-profile HS teams at the Storer Classic started off strong despite the rainy weather.
With rain a constant feature in Southern California these days, teams have eschewed the typical regional response to drops of water out of the sky (that is, they run screaming for shelter), and instead have done the best they could to practice and play.
The Storer Classic moved their games to turf fields and carried on, where Thunder Rugby, 2021 HS Club National Champions and 2022 National Tier II winners, Belmont Shore, 2022 National HS runners-up, SOC Raptors, who almost toppled the eventual 2022 HS Club champs, and 2018 HS Club champs Danville all showed well.
Fallbrook, Cathedral Win in SCIRF
Fallbrook and Cathedral Catholic both won in SCIRF action this weekend.
Cathedral moved to 3-0 with a 47-7 victory over La Costa Canyon. Fallbrook rode a solid defensive effort to defeat Mira Costa 24-3.
"I felt really good about it," said Fallbrook Head Coach Sierra Arteaga. "It was a very wet game but our defense came through. They did a really good job putting pressure on Mira Costa; our whole emphasis in practice this week was on defense."
